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ANOTKTWR all in their early 20s, came about when Stuart (drummer) and Sam (bassist) used to go to The Autumn Year shows (Kevin’s old band). Through jamming sessions, with the assistance of Duncan (guitar), the Robots were subsequently born in a basement, somewhere in Leeds. It didn’t take long to secure gigs in their hometown, and within three weeks of being together played their first show. Its been 1 year and 5 months since their inception and in this time they’ve managed to play with New End Original, Planes Mistaken For Stars, Cave In, Otherwise, Stars Rain Down, Chris Appleseed Cast … and many more impressive bands to make you gasp. And to top this all off, their first gig went well too. It’s quite boring actually ‘cause it went smoothly even though we had only been practicing for about two and a half weeks. I think there were a few little moments when we kinda forgot things but because I think we write a lot on our gut feelings I guess we pulled through kind of ad libbing it. Bastards.
What is music to you? It’s a way of life for me; I’ve just finished a course in music production and am currently trying to build my own studio. My job comes last in my life. Music for me is everything. Imagine life without sound! No noise when it rains, no wind, no laughing or crying. Its basic communication for people that can hear, you can tell so much from a sound and it can trigger so many though processes.
What’s your inspiration? Personally, friends and family, musically bands like Minor Threat, Fugazi, Mineral, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, the Descendents, Braid, Spy versus Spy and Radiohead. Stu, Sam and Dunc are all quite into Propagandhi, Slayer and like Jazz. Collectively I guess Planes mistaken for Stars, Cave In, The Cure and Jeff Buckley.
How have the Robots improved musically over time? As soon as we started we had a lot of interest and therefore a lot of gigs, so we just got tight really fast, everything just became solid and we all really learned how we all communicate whilst playing, so the whole experience of playing was really kinda (this sounds sad) spiritual. We don’t really think now when we play it just comes out which was the intention and I think is every bands intention. The ease of it all gracefully takes you back to the things you were thinking about when you were writing the songs and how you felt at that moment. So I think with all that we have just matured a little more. The new stuff sounds really nice, more extremes of everyone we visited with the first songs! The technical stuff is getting more technical and the rock stuff is getting more rock!
What do you aspire to achieve with the band? As a band we all want to achieve having a good time and a bad time with it all. It’s like having a relationship; when it’s good it’s great and when it’s bad you feel sick and don’t want to leave the house. So we all just want to experience these things together, we all love each other very much and these feelings have grown strong over this past year, so achievement is very much a democratic thing.
I think we just want people to remember us years down the line in the same way as people do with amazing bands like Mineral and Christie Front Drive. I guess that’s a dream really because of the way music trends move. I don’t think there are going to be many bands in this era which have that status. We just want kids to feel how we did when we first listened to a great band and got excited at the prospect of even looking at these figures in person!
And you can catch …And None Of Them Knew They Were Robots, in person (!) at the Kentish Town Verge on Monday April 22nd. The Robots are intending to do a 3 way release later this year; a double E.P (one mellow and one hardcore), and an album. They currently have 5 tracks for the album, which, if all things go to plan, will be finished in June/July at the latest.
The self-titled 7 track EP is out at the moment on Pig Dog Records, for your aural pleasure. For more information, news, etc make sure you check out the official …And None Of Them Knew They Were Robots website.
